The FBI along with other agencies serve a search warrant at a home in on the 13800-block of Mansa Dr. in La Mirada on Tuesday May 23, 2017. Several locations in neighboring cities resulted in the arrest of 12 suspects. (Photo by Keith Durflinger/Whittier Daily News/SCNG)

A multi-agency raid in La Mirada, Whittier, La Habra and other cities Tuesday morning led to the arrest of 12 suspects tied to a fraud ring that used credit card information stolen from customers at local restaurants to create counterfeit cards.

Authorities are still looking for one suspect.

Many of the 13 suspects have ties to gangs based in La Mirada and Norwalk. Federal officials said the scheme affected more than 500 credit cards and caused banks to lose more than $500,000.

From Oct. 25, 2013 to July 2, 2015, authorities alleged that members of the ring hit stores in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties making purchases, including designer hand bags, jewelry, video game consoles, expensive head phones, an air conditioner and even a crossbow.

The suspects would resell the goods, return them to the store for credit to use later or keep it for themselves, according to a federal indictment filed April 18 outlining the scheme.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said many of the cards were skimmed at a restaurant in Huntington Beach. He said an employee at the restaurant used a credit card skimming device to steal information from customers. Authorities and the indictment didn’t name the restaurant.

The employee sold the devices with the stolen information to the ring, which investigators said was led by 43-year-old Russell Jay Ogden and his wife, 41-year-old Shelly Anne Ogden. Mrozek said Russell Ogden, who goes by the moniker, “Big Dog,” is linked to street gangs known as the La Mirada Punks and the Carmelas.

The FBI, California Highway Patrol and Huntington Beach police arrived at Ogden’s neighborhood in the 13800 block of Mansa Drive on Tuesday morning and served a search warrant at his house. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said a SWAT team used a flash bang device, which some neighbors thought were gunshots.

“No shots were fired,” she said.

Eimiller said Ogden’s wife was not arrested at the house, but at another nearby location. Ogden eluded capture but was later arrested Tuesday afternoon.

A 27-year-old man who lives four doors down from Ogden said he spoke to the man just an hour before the FBI showed up at the home.

“He’s a good guy,” the neighbor said. “If what they say he did is true, they’re not going to find anything there because he’s too smart.”

The neighborhood, after all the agents and media left, was rocked again when a flash bang device went off at about 12:30 p.m.

“That sounded just like the one this morning,” another neighbor said, as others walked outside their homes to investigate the noise.

Mrozek said 12 of the 13 suspects named in the indictment are in custody. Lloyd Luis Leyh, 43, of Huntington Beach, remains a fugitive. All were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Most were also charged in other counts of fraud transactions using credit cards and aggravated identity theft.

Rudy Leo Aguilar, aka “Fats” and “Dreamer,” 32, of Norwalk, was also named in an indictment that charges him with distributing about two pounds of methamphetamine.

Gustavo Uribe Meza, aka “Big Boy” and “Goose,” 24, of Whittier; and Peter Chiapparine, also known as “Uncle Pete,” 72, of South Gate, were charged in a narcotics-trafficking case involving methamphetamines.

Mrozek said 11 of the suspects appeared in a Los Angeles federal court Tuesday afternoon and entered not guilty pleas. They were ordered to stand trial July 18.

The investigation has been ongoing for more than two years and started when local authorities received calls about identity theft involving credit cards, according to Eimiller. She said federal agencies were later brought into the investigation.

According to the indictment, Ogden and Blaine Andrew Porlas, 51, of La Habra, met with the person who skimmed the credit cards in Huntington Beach, who gave them a portable skimmer loaded with the stolen information.

The information was used to load cards with magnetic strips such as gift cards. The re-encoded cards were embossed with the suspects’ names.

The group used the cards at Chevron gas stations, Home Depot, Toys R Us, the Apple store, Samy’s Camera store, Nordstrom and other businesses. Two of the suspects liked Nordstrom.

During a Dec. 16, 2014 phone call, Ogden told one member to be careful where he used an American Express card because he could ruin it, according to the indictment. The member responded with “Nordstroms is cool.”

Ogden replied, “Nordstroms is gravy baby.”

In another call four days later, Ogden mentioned two members were both in Dick’s Sporting Goods Store buying items and doing well. He bragged that he had not “made money like this in f—–g forever.”

The defendants were also contacted by people who ordered specific items, like an XBox One and a GoPro camera, according to the indictments.

On Jan. 17, 2015, Ogden and Leo Norman Aguilar talked about Ogden, Rudy Aguilar and Ameer Adnan Yousef getting arrested outside Jack’s Surfboards with 19 cards. Ogden said none of the cards had been used, according to the indictment.

The next day, Ogden told the restaurant employee about the arrest and was concerned the cards could be traced to the employee. He warned the skimmer source to “be on your toes.”

Eimiller said the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Secret Service and police departments in Los Angeles, Brea, La Habra and Huntington Beach were involved in the investigation.

Ruby Gonzales started working for the company in 1991. Since then she has written about cities, school districts, crimes, cold cases, courts, the San Gabriel River, local history, anime, insects, forensics and the early days of the Internet when people still referred to it as the "information superhighway." Her current beat includes breaking news, crimes and courts for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News and Whittier Daily News. When not in crime reporter mode, she frequents the remaining bookstores in the San Gabriel Valley, haunts craft stores or gets dragged to eateries by a relative who is a foodie.

Sandra Molina is a native Southern Californian, the oldest of three children raised by a single mom who named her after Dodgers great Sandy Koufax. She grew up in Monterey Park, but was schooled in Tarzana, through busing, and East Los Angeles. She is a proud alumna of Garfield High School in East Los Angeles; Rio Hondo College in Whittier; and Cal State University at Long Beach, where she earned a BA degree in English Literature. She began a career as a freelance writer and photographer in the San Gabriel Valley in 1997, in addition to being a writer/photographer for GoGirlsMusic.com as its Los Angeles correspondent. She has been a reporter with the San Gabriel Valley News Group since 2007 writing features, breaking news, entertainment, sports and crime. Outside of the newsroom, she enjoys music, reading, going to the beach and spending time with family and friends.

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